I’d like to know who some of these Aussies are who are passionate about the Queen… most people I know couldn’t give a stuff either way (which is the good old fashioned Oz attitude to many things)…

Cheers
r

By the way, the first house I bought was in Box Hill in Melbourne, in the middle of 1999, a three bedroomer for 220k, It was my PPOR, but would have rented for 300pw (this is before I was into property investing)… That’s a yield of around 7%. What a good buy… considering it was 12km to the city with great infrastructure.

I sold it for $345k in late 2001 to buy something else… the rent would have been around the same… so the yield is 4.5%… that’s a pretty big shortfall you have to make up if you’re negative gearing, I reckon, and it ruins your servicability unless you’re on a big wage…

And yes, sometimes I regret selling Box Hill, but there’s pros and cons with every decision, and we’ve been able to do some things that we never would have done had we not sold, so overall I’m comfortable with it. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to take a profit…

Cheers
r

Hi Andrew,

Jeez, 4% yield in suburbia is nothing to write home about mate… There’s no way you’d get me to buy at that yield… I’m not a seasoned property investor by any stretch, but there’s many I know who have been in for 20-25 years, and they would not touch a 4% yield…

By the way, Mentone’s a great area, but it’s been one of the biggest boomers in Melbourne over the last few years too… For what it’s worth, I reckon Frankston’s a good option too, just not at that crappy yield…

Cheers
r

Yack

I would have thought an oversupply of rentals would force the prices down, not up.

cheers
r

Hi Ken

Welcome to Oz!

Best tips I’ve got are study a map… or buy a holiday atlas from the motoring organisation in your state… some of them have rundowns on towns and cities in each state of Australia… even right down to very small towns. Purchase one and study it thoroughly.

As for your English, I’d just try and have as many conversations with different people as you can… do you know many other new arrivals? Perhaps when you’re talking together you should try and just talk in English, might help a bit…

Cheers
r

Hi Redwing,

In response to your question in another thread, married life is going well, while I find it funny that as soon as I tell someone I work in telly, they automatically assume big bucks… I can assure you it ain’t the case [}]!!!Why do you think I’m here trying to shore up the future??? []

In regards to Christmas spending, I wonder how much of that money was actually savings, and how much went onto already over-stretched credit cards? How many would have dipped into their LOC against their house etc? I’m suspecting PLENTY!!

Heard some more doom and gloom predictions on the radio this morning about property if interest rates go up another couple of percent (bloody media [])… it’ll be interesting, because there’s obviously some people who have borrowed up to the hilt to get into the first home buyers market… mind you, too many aren’t satisfied with starting small, they want a 400-450k place right off the bat and borrow as much as they can… it’s those ones (and I know many of them) who are going to be hurting…

Cheers
r

Hi SIS

heard on the radio this morning Aussie dollar is tipped to go over 80 cents by middle of year… best performing currency in the world at the moment against the greenback. When I was in the US a couple of years ago it was around 58 cents. Yuk.

Cheers
r

From what I know of how Steve and Dave built their empire, they didn’t solely rely on their properties to get funds to keep going. They had various income streams (Dave’s accounting, seminars, this website etc) to draw on, in tandem with some pretty solid planning and goals…

Maybe you should let us know a little bit more about the goals you’ve set yourself… and how you plan to get there…

Cheers
r

Hi SIS

I wouldn’t refer to specific shares… in a discussion about where the economy’s headed in 2004, a few general comments about the sharemarket overall would be pertinent I would have thought…

I’m sure if Steve thinks otherwise, this thread will be locked or deleted soon enough [].

r